Sea Room

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be given your own remote islands? Thirty years ago it happened to Adam Nicolson.

Aged 21, Nicolson inherited the Shiants, three lonely Hebridean islands set in a dangerous sea off the Isle of Lewis. With only a stone bothy for accommodation and half a million puffins for company, he found himself in charge of one of the most beautiful places on earth.

The story of the Shiants is a story of birds and boats, hermits and fishermen, witchcraft and catastrophe, and Nicolson expertly weaves these elements into his own tale of seclusion on the Shiants to create a stirring celebration of island life.

“'Exceptionally well done, beautifully written, personal yet panoramic.' Observer 'An extraordinarily outward-looking bookea truly passionate attention to detaile. A love-letter no one else could hope to write so well.' Sunday Telegraph 'A passionate evocation, a compression of observation and anecdote which catches you up in its intelligence as well as its enthusiasm, and fill you with homesickness for a place you've never been to.' Daily Telegraph 'Generous, exuberant and a vividly written narrativee. history, travel-writing and memoir of the best sort.' Spectator 'Sharply observed, a finely written work, one to be savoured, turned over and over like a good whisky.' Sunday Times”

Praise for Adam Nicolson's Perch Hill: 'A delight, beautifully written, acutely observed and laced with self-mockery' Jonathan Dimbleby in the The Times 'By turns ecstatic, elegant, subtle and philosophical' Richard Mabey 'A timely reminder that the very best writing starts at home.' Robert McCrum in The Observer

Adam Nicolson is the author of many books on history, travel and the environment. He is winner of the Somerset Maugham Award and the British Topography Prize and lives on at Sissinghust Castle in Kent. His most recent book for HarperCollins is Sissinghurst, a wonderful and personal biography of a place – the story of a heritage, of a vision of connecting once more buildings and garden, fields and farms and of how that dream was realised.

20 years ago it happened to Adam Nicolson he inherited the Shiants, 3 lonely islands set in a dangerous sea 5 miles off Lewis; only a stone bothy for accommodation e" and one of the most beautiful places on the planet. A world of hermits and stories, of birds and boats, of fisherman and sheep, 'Sea Room' is these islands' story, written with passion and poetry e" a celebration for us all of island life. "Exceptionally well done, beautiful written, personal yet panoramic."OBSERVER An extraordinarily outward-looking bookea truly passionate attention to detaileA love letter no one else could hope to write so well."NOEL MALCOLM, 'Sunday Telegraph' Generous, exuberant and a vividly written narrativeehistory, travel writing and memoir of the best sort."DAVID CRANE, 'Spectator' "Sharply observed, a finely written work, one to be savoured, turned over and over like a good whisky."ANTHONY SATTIN, 'Sunday Times'

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be given your own remote islands? Thirty years ago it happened to Adam Nicolson. Aged 21, Nicolson inherited the Shiants, three lonely Hebridean islands set in a dangerous sea off the Isle of Lewis. With only a stone bothy for accommodation and half a million puffins for company, he found himself in charge of one of the most beautiful places on earth. The story of the Shiants is a story of birds and boats, hermits and fishermen, witchcraft and catastrophe, and Nicolson expertly weaves these elements into his own tale of seclusion on the Shiants to create a stirring celebration of island life.

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